How Much Do Ragdoll Cats Shed?
How would you answer the question, “How Much Do Ragdoll Cats Shed?” Believe it or not, I get this question quite a bit. Usually it comes from people that have heard that Ragdolls do not shed and are interested in adopting one because of it. If there’s one thing I have learned from this website, it’s that “Ragdoll” stereotypes and myths can be perpetuated so much that it causes the cat to fail before it even arrives home. So I am all about getting rid of those myths.
Here’s what I say:
Unfortunately that’s a near impossible question to answer due to the fact that there is no clear cut answer. There are many factors that go into it.
Has to do with a lot of things:
- How clean is the human, how often do they vacuum
- How often do they brush their coats?
- What kind of coat does the Ragdoll have? The 9 in my family all have slightly different coats that shed differently.
- Where you live in the country/world? When do the seasons change there, etc?
- Overall cat’s genetics
- What the cat eats
Hope that makes it clear as to why there’s no way to respond to that question with all the varying factors.
As with any responsibility, if hair is an issue for you, then maybe a long hair cat isn’t right for you, or maybe you will have to step up your vacuuming skills.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/l7ZiKNZ3DPM[/youtube]
Hi, I’m Jenny Dean, creator of Floppycats! Ever since my Aunt got the first Ragdoll cat in our family, I have loved the breed. Inspired by my childhood Ragdoll cat, Rags, I created Floppycats to connect, share and inspire other Ragdoll cat lovers around the world,
How do you keep your cats from climbing the wooden and chain link fence and wandering?
they don’t try to leave – so i don’t have to worry about the climbing
I completely agree on the 6 points mentioned above.
I have three Ragdolls, with different colouration and fur types. Marie, the female of the three seems to shed the most. Her coat is much thicker than the two boys. I am wondering whether this might have something to do with her being a colour point and her extremities being colder. Have you found this in your experience?
Sam Wonder of I Love Ragdolls
Sam, it’s interesting that you mention the color points. William was a flame point; unless the cats had tussled, I never found orange fur around the house. I just found white marshmallowy fluffy clumps.
I’m sure there must have been orange fur flying about as all the girls were torties/torbies, but the fur I picked up was white. The vacuum cleaner contents were always a muddy grey.
Well I have two male kittens, 7 months and 5 months. They do not shed much but maybe they will when they get older. The older one is huge and has very bunny like fur, the younger one seems to have a little bit longer hair. We live in Northern California so the weather is more mild. I am a clean freak however. I vacuum my hardwood floors every day because I also have two Labs and they do shed a lot. I can’t stand hair on the floor. I do brush the kittens every couple days and not much comes out. I remember puppies don’t shed much either until they get older. So far it’s very manageable. Also, never had a hairball…yet.
My dear departed Lucy hardly shed or matted at all. I could brush her once a week and all was well. My new love Loki is a shedding machine. I comb and brush him every day and I swear I get enough fluff from him to knit a whole new cat. But Loki’s fur is much much thicker than Lucy’s ever was. So much so that he hardly looks real: he looks like a fluffy toy polar bear. Lucky for me, he loves being brushed and combed. Every day he will find one of his brushes or combs and start nudging it towards me to remind me that it’s time to brush him!
Have 2 Ragdolls, Grace and Illaria, and one Maine Coon rescue (Mari) and a grey tabbie rescue, Pumpkin.
Pumpking barely sheds at all and is very sleek with short fine hair.
Mari has course long hair, Grace is a sepia and has really baby fine, super soft hair, and Illaria has really dense, cottony super soft, fur.
The 3 of them don’t really shed per se except twice a year in the spring and fall. Then it is like their entire coats drop on the floor little by little over a period of about 3 weeks, and then they are just fine again until the next biannual change. I brush them all about once a week but none of them mat. I vacuum about 3-4 times/week near their boxes, but do the house about once a week or if an accident happens.
They are pretty much low maintenance as compared to other breeds I have had like the Persians who matted terribly if not brushed every day or so.
Mine sheds like crazy too! Jenny, you showed us a comb that you liked and I think it was the kind with the long metal teeth like the one in the picture..right? IF I can get “Ricky” to let me comb him, I would like to get as much extra lingering hair as possible..thanks.
Great post, Jenny! Sometimes, I feel like we must have 20 Ragdolls in our apartment. lol 🙂
Our Pink Sugar girl sheds a lot! I groom her coat a few times a week with same ShedMonster tool that you have. (ShedMonster buddies!) 🙂
We are constantly picking up cat fluffies up off the carpet, the couch, our chairs. But, she’s a big ol’ fluffy long hair cat so I’m not surprised by how much she sheds. The trick is getting to the fluffies before she decides to snack on one. She loves to munch on any spare fluffies laying around. Sigh… 🙂
We keep the hair on her backside clipped short so we don’t have any sticky litterbox issues on that end. (Pardon my pun. lol)
Say, did you get my e-mails yesterday with the info you were asking for regarding Listia and MyPoints? I hope so!
Big hugs!
Patti & Pink Sugar 🙂 <3
Oh Patti, you crack me up!!!! Love your post and especially the part about Pink Sugar snacking on the fluffies!!!! This is stuff I think about but have never really talked about. So funny you said it so well. At our house, it is like if they find a fuzzie laying around, they literally dive bomb it to see who is going to get to eat it first OR, if they are licking and one gets dislodged, they chew and try to swallow it before I can get it. It is like they actually protect it like it is their favorite candy and don’t want to give it up to Mommie. So funny – thanks.
lol 🙂
Big hugs to you and your fluffy-eating dive bombers! Love it! Your description had me laughing out loud so hard that I woke my sweet hubby up (who was napping in his recliner)! lol 🙂
<3
♥
We’ve had Desperate Housecats. We’ve had Lifetime Movies. Now we have True Confessions.
One of the great loves of my life, Zen, was a fluff eater. A long-haired tortie with a tail and ‘tude like Charlie’s, she would examine the fur I yanked unmercifully from her but wouldn’t eat it. No. She only ate William’s marshmallowy-cottony fur. Trying to get a gob away from her was nearly impossible. I don’t know what this means, if anything. Although Zen didn’t dislike William, she was an intellectual snob and really had no use for him. She never groomed him. So why did she eat his fur?
Oh, DB! LOL
So hilarious! Such a strange behavior that we’ll probably never understand. Cats?! Gotta love ’em!
Big hugs!
Patti & Pink Sugar 🙂 <3
Definitely depends on the kitty. My little boy kitty had hair like a bunny, short and thick, and didn’t shed at all. My two little girl kitties have long thinner hair and shed quite a bit, but only on things they lay or roll on, like if you where dark clothes and cuddle them up. There’s no fur balls rolling around the floors or anything to that excess.
How much do ragdolls shed?? Um…enough that i pulled a 10 inch cat hair from my nose this morning…not to mention…never mind…just know…they DO shed… A LOT! And no matter how much you brush…and clean…and pray…if ya love em…you deal! 🙂
Hi we are over in North East England and our ragdolls shed more in spring and winter leaving lovely little cotton wool like bits about the house. I bought a mini rechargeable vacuum which is great for this and litter, I use this between the big vacuum days. We usually have high humidity especially at the moment with all the storms but thankfully had no tats. I tend to brush them about 2-3 times a week.
i like your last sentence jenny. if you have a cat, you are going to have shedding. if you don’t want shedding, then don’t have a cat. especially a long haired cat. that’s like saying .. i want a kid but it can’t poop and throw up or slobber. part of having a cat is picking up hair, brushing them and doing all the stuff required to support and love another living being.
thanks, patricia…i agree about the kid thing and so many other things. i love when cats are compared to other cats…i.e. “my other cat didn’t do this!” they are individual souls with different personalities – much in the same way that siblings ought not to be compared or expected to act/behave the same.
Beautifully said.
Mine sheds like crazy. Hates to be brushed…but I do it anyway…give her treats. She gets knots and other stuff under her “arms”, around her collar. I have all kinds of brushes, sprays…etc. But I have to be careful, she can bite.
How often the “mommy” vacuums is not the issue. How often does mommy HAVE to vacuum, clean off furniture, brush off clothing, etc. Anyway, I love her.
Oh my god, I swear Nico&Anya shed like there is NO tomorrow!
Do Charlie and Trigg shed a lot?
Ha ha ha! “Do Charlie and Trigg shed a lot?” is like the question on this post!
Ha!
Oh, by the way, does Charlie or Trigg ever wake you up in the morning? Anya does at 5……….
Jenny, thank you for covering all bases. This is a must-read for anyone planning to acquire a Ragdoll.
How would I answer the question? I’m not sure if “a lot” is the correct answer. William shed (shedded?)in fluffy white clumps, visible to the nekkid eye. He had cottony fur, easy to pick up. (Where did the orange go?) Yet I haven’t noticed much change in vacuuming since he’s been gone. Izzy, my one short-haired cat, really sheds the most, but it’s not visible like William’s, and she doesn’t shed in clumps.
When I first became aware of Ragdolls in the late 80s, popular cat magazines touted the breed as shed-free, hypoallergenic and somewhat impervious to pain. No to all three.
“popular cat magazines touted the breed as shed-free, hypoallergenic and somewhat impervious to pain” – oh yes, just got a hypoallergenic email yesterday!!
I read the reason “How clean is the human, how often do they vacuum” as an example of how impossible it was to really answer the question, it would be like asking how clean a human is!!
When a guy was out to fix my air conditioning several years ago, he said the main thing clogging my system was HUMAN skin. Like that didn’t make me gag.
ew!!
That’s soooo gross.
Indeed. Instead of asking if Ragdolls shed, cats should be asking if their prospective humans flake!!
oh man, i love how your mind works.
Oh that is so gross as I am drinking my morning coffee!!!! Hey – I would love to ask you a question and should do it off of here – about eyes. I figure you know so much and wonder if you have experience with what I am observing with my 7 month old. My email is knowltons4@att.net – if you wouldn’t mind…
Janet, I only now saw your comment. I must not have clicked “notify me of follow-up comments on this particular flaky skin thread.
Do you still need help, suggestions, advice, etc.? She Who Knows Everything will be glad to help. Will click “notify” right now.
Yes, please…
ha ha ha – so true!
So true – my ragdoll I got in California and did not matte; now having been on the east coast – he does matte – I chalked it up to humidity for sure. Also – I brush once a week…
WOW! Now that’s an interesting spin on humidity and matts! Did both cats have similar coats? For example, Charlie and Trigg have totally different coats.